Group makes heartfelt plea for CPR training

Bill makes course a requirement for high school graduation

Nearly 100 volunteers participated in a CPR demonstration in Albany on Tuesday as part of the American Heart Association's push for the state Legislature to pass the CPR in Schools bill, which would require high school students to graduate with CPR training.

John Mazur, a Schenectady native, says he is alive today because first responders performed CPR on him when he went into cardiac arrest while pumping gas on Altamont Avenue in Rotterdam five years ago. On Tuesday, he was at the state Capitol in Albany with the American Heart Association, calling on the state Legislature to pass a bill that would ensure high school graduates have CPR training. “CPR saved my life in October of 2009,” ...

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CPR is not for everyone. There are people who have trouble with the physical aspect and people who have trouble understanding exactly what they are trying to do. It should be voluntary and if it is many students will want to learn. But the idea of forcing a young teenager to learn something like this makes no sense. There are a lot of people who, in an emergency, are too scared and confused to know what to do. They are unsure and afraid regarding how to proceed. So should we make everyone in the entire country learn CPR?? Remember - just because someone knows how to perform CPR does not mean they will do so in a life threatening emergency.